Blue Button app contest winners selected

Developers have added more applications to the Blue Button eco-system to make it easier for consumers to obtain and use their data.

Winners of competitions sponsored by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and The Advisory Board Co. were announced Oct. 8 at the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco and at its Twitter hashtag, #health2con.

Humetrix, of Del Mar, Calif., outside of San Diego, won first place and $45,000 for ONC’s Blue Button Mash-Up challenge so consumers can combine administrative and community data with the capability to view, download and transmit their health information.

Humetrix, a mobile technology provider, said it has developed the iBlueButton, a mobile tool, to automatically access and download Medicare Blue Button text files on to the patient’s device, translates medical codes into English and displays the data in organized tables of problem and medications lists, past medical visits, tests and procedures.

The mobile app also enables patients and their caregivers to query public databases about drug information and side effects and generate warnings when they enter a prescribed medication or side effects. The patient may also securely transmit Blue Button information to a physician with the app’s push technology, according to the company description.

Humetrix said that the app will be available soon on iTunes.

Additionally, Intelligent Decisions Inc., of Ashburn, Va., won second prize and $20,000 for its app that organizes patients’ raw data into a simple picture of their health. Get Real Consulting of Rockville, Md., won $10,000 for third place for its instant personal health record to view, download and track their health and share it with other providers.

Kinergy Health of Vienna, Va., which uses its MyKinergy Web portal to connect family members, doctors and other healthcare providers to care for family members and loved ones, won the Patient Engagement Blue Button challenge and $25,000, sponsored by The Advisory Board Co.

The Patient Engagement Blue Button Challenge was designed to create or identify a consumer application that will enable the greatest number of individuals to make Blue Button data available to hospitals and physicians, according to Aneesh Chopra, former White House chief technology officer, who returned as a senior advisor to the research and consulting company.

“Effective patient engagement is an essential component of any health care provider organization’s strategy to thrive in the era of value-based purchasing, episode-of-care-based bundled payments, and shared savings programs," he said at the outset of the competition.

The challenges build on the Blue Button feature, developed by the Veterans Affairs Department, which enables patients to download their health information in a simple ASCII text format to their computers or personal health records to share with providers, families or caregivers.

To date, more than 1 million veterans, members of the military and seniors on Medicare have downloaded their health information using the Blue Button feature. The Office of Personnel Management has also requested that federal employees’ health plans also offer Blue Button. A few private healthcare organizations, such as UnitedHealth and Aetna, are beginning to incorporate it.